"A thousand undead?" Daniel raised an eyebrow — that number wasn't a joke.

"Is that a lot?" The skull-headed figure tilted his head in confusion, clearly unaware of the implications.

Daniel stood up, grabbing it in one hand, mounted Vorak, and started riding toward the undead tribe.

"A thousand undead is a lot, especially if the lich isn't even B-rank. That number is absurd," Daniel finally replied.

He didn't know much about liches, but even with his limited knowledge, he was sure a B-rank lich couldn't command the strength of a thousand.

In fact, the very idea of a lich being half-step into B-rank didn't make sense — because undead who reach B-rank are already referred to as liches.

The problem is, unlike most other races, undead can't increase their power. They retain whatever strength they had while alive.

If a B-rank climber dies and becomes undead, they're called a lich. An A-rank one becomes a Great Lich, and an S-rank turns into an Undead King.

Liches are essentially undead who can create more undead.

That's why he couldn't understand how a half-step B-rank could become a lich. It just didn't make sense.

"I don't know, great human. We've lived here for centuries, and our numbers grew slowly over time," the skull replied.

"Centuries?" Daniel gave the skull a surprised look. He hadn't expected that.

"That's right. We've been here for centuries," the skull confirmed.

"Centuries, and you never left this place? That's interesting."

"We did think about leaving. But we undead need Death Aura to survive. And back when we first turned undead, the Death Aura here was extremely rich," the skull explained.

"Death Aura? But I don't feel anything," Daniel glanced around, trying to sense it.

He failed, but didn't dwell on it. Maybe it was something only the undead could sense?

"The Death Aura has weakened a lot over the past few decades. We were actually thinking of leaving, but then a human came and entered the deeper parts of the mountains. He soon left again and exited the mountain."

"After that, countless humans started arriving. Not just humans, even other races. The powerful ones went into the deeper regions, but very few came back. Meanwhile, the Death Aura kept growing stronger and stronger every day."

Daniel said nothing, contemplating the skull's words. His instincts told him something was wrong here.

"Tell me everything you know about the mountain," he looked back at the skull.

"Huh? The mountain has two parts. The surface is divided into three zones. I don't know anything about the deeper areas. I've never dared to go there."

"We and the other two races that rule the other zones only stay here because of the Death Aura that flows out from the mountain depths," the skull explained.

"So they feed off the Death Aura too?" Daniel asked.

He didn't pay much attention to the mountain being "two parts" — after all, the skull admitted he had never been down there, so maybe he didn't know much about it.

"That's right, great human. Death Aura is essential for our existence. But we don't have much contact with the other zones… except for those strange spirits that live near the entrance to the depths."

"Strange spirits?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Yes, strange spirits. They were here even before us. They probably formed from the Death Aura itself. Most humans are killed by them."

A spark of curiosity lit up in Daniel's eyes. He really wanted to know where this Death Aura was coming from.

If it was powerful enough to support three different races, then its source couldn't be ordinary.

Could it be leaking from the corpse of that rumored ancient demon? It wasn't impossible — in fact, it seemed pretty likely.

But for some reason, Daniel felt like that wasn't the case. There had to be another reason.

This mountain was grabbing more and more of his attention — first a lich that wasn't even B-rank, and now this mysterious Death Aura and strange spirits.

The method the lich was using to try to reach B-rank also caught his interest. As far as Daniel knew, the undead couldn't increase their power after death. But it seemed that wasn't entirely true — maybe there was a way.

"Anyway, aside from that human you mentioned, did you have any other visitors before?" Daniel asked the question that came to his mind.

"We did, but they were all weak. Most of them died and turned into undead. In fact, all of us here turned undead because of the Death Aura."

"Because of the Death Aura? It can do that?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.

As far as he knew, Death Aura corroded and broke down living bodies.

But turning someone into undead? He had never heard of that before.

Could this be related to that ancient demon too?

"Of course. All of us undead here were created because of the Death Aura. Our lich doesn't have the ability to make undead," the skull said, glancing at Daniel.

"Well, that makes more sense now," Daniel nodded. So the lich was basically a fake lich.

"Anyway, you really don't know what's inside the deeper parts of the mountain?"

"No. But I'm sure there's no living being there. They're all ghosts. Even the spirits near the entrance are part of them."

"Oh, actually, we did once catch a weak human who had escaped from the mountain depths. But he was badly injured and almost dead." The skull, as if suddenly remembering something, said

"Really? What happened to him? Did he turn into undead?" Daniel asked curiously. If he could find someone who had seen the two inner layers of the mountain, that would help a lot

Assuming, of course, that person turned undead and Daniel could defeat him. Otherwise, he would have to give up on it.

"No, he died. But before dying, he kept saying everything was a lie, that the demon wasn't real, stuff like that," the skull replied in a confused tone.

At that time, he hadn't understood what that human meant either.

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